WASHNGTON – Rep. Steve Buyer, R-4th, will not run for a 10th term because of his wife's illness, he said Friday. Buyer's retirement deals a blow to the GOP, which hopes to ride voter dissatisfaction to majority control of the House in this year's congressional elections.
Buyer, 51, under an ethical cloud because of a charity he founded that has not awarded the scholarships it promised, said his wife has an "incurable autoimmune disease." Weeping at times, he made the announcement at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis with his wife, Joni, at his side.
Buyer's seat was considered "safe," meaning the Republican Party would not need to send resources to help Buyer's re-election. But a congressional district without an incumbent would compete with other competitive House races for contributions from national party organizations.
His district is long and narrow, stretching through much of central Indiana from White County to Bedford County.
Earlier this week a government watchdog group asked for an IRS and House ethics investigation into Buyer, claiming he "used the charity to foot golf fundraisers at exclusive resorts where he hobnobs with corporate donors … who have business before him."
Buyer helped found the Frontier Foundation in 2003 and is its honorary chairman. The non-profit organization says its main purpose is to raise money for scholarships for Hoosier students but has not awarded any.
Buyer entered Congress in 1993 after defeating a liberal Democrat. Buyer, who had been in the first Gulf War as a legal adviser in a prisoner of war camp, campaigned with combat boots strung around his neck.
One of the early issues he championed after being sworn in was an investigation into medical problems Gulf veterans – including himself – were experiencing. At the time, the Pentagon denied the existence of Gulf War Syndrome.
He rose in seniority in the Veterans Affairs Committee, and when the GOP held the House majority, Buyer was the panel's chairman.
In 1998, he was one of the prosecutors in the impeachment hearings of President Clinton.
Buyer's decision appears to have been reached recently. His campaign filed a report of its 2009 activities this week and listed $400,000 in the bank.
